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Now that we’ve finished the @store function, it’s time to move away from the browser and start testing with software such as POSTMAN or an IDE plugin such as REST Client. To send and test a POST request, you’ll need to download and install POSTMAN yourself and REST Client, in the Visual Studio Code extensions marketplace. I will walk you through the steps to installing a REST Client by Huachao Mao so let’s get started.
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Welcome back.
0:00
Now that we finished the @store
function, it's time to move away from
0:02
the browser and start testing
with software such as postman, or
0:06
an IDE plugin, such as REST client.
0:10
To send and test a post request, you'll
need to download and install Postman
0:14
yourself and REST client in the Visual
Studio Code extensions marketplace.
0:19
I'll walk you through the steps of
installing REST client by Chow,
0:25
so let's get started.
0:29
Now that we have Postman installed, let's
test the @store function like this.
0:33
To test the at index end point,
select GET.
0:39
And add this URL, And click Send.
0:45
It works as expected.
0:55
Nice, now, let's install REST client so
0:57
we can do our testing without having
to leave Visual Studio code like this.
1:00
I've already installed it, so
go ahead and install it here.
1:16
Finally, we're gonna create a new
1:22
file named rest_test.http like this.
1:27
If you have any trouble with REST client
like connection is being rejected,
1:39
try PHP artisan serve without that
dash dash host equals local host.
1:44
First, let's test all authors like this.
1:51
Nice, here are all the authors.
2:00
As you can see, REST client is
a wonderful tool for testing endpoints.
2:04
We received our HTTP response of 200 okay,
2:09
we have some extra
information in the header.
2:14
And we have all of our authors returned
right inside of Visual Studio code.
2:17
Next, let's test a single
author like this.
2:24
Perfect, author number three.
2:34
How about all books like this?
2:40
Perfect, here are all of the books.
2:48
Code update.
2:57
In this code snippet,
2:59
be sure to remove the pipe unique because
we're not checking for unique emails.
3:00
Check the teachers notes
below to learn more.
3:05
Before we can test the @store function,
3:09
let's import the validator
at the top like this.
3:11
Next, we're going to refractor
the current validation code like this.
3:18
Next, we're gonna update the return
response as well, like this.
3:30
Finally, let's test the @store function like this.
3:38
To learn more about validation,
check the teacher's notes below.
3:47
Nice job,
we successfully sent a post request and
3:51
received an HTTP status of 201 created.
3:55
201 means that the request has been
fulfilled and has resulted in one or
3:59
more resources being created, so
everything is working as expected.
4:04
To verify that our new author was created,
use the default welcome view,
4:09
Postman or REST client.
4:14
Try submitting a git request
using REST client like this.
4:17
As you can see, the last author is
indeed our newly created author, so
4:24
everything is working, nice job.
4:29
I like using REST client for testing, but
4:32
feel free to use post man or
the default welcome view
4:35
as demonstrated earlier as each one
of these will test the same results.
4:38
Great job so far, we successfully created,
and tested the index,
4:44
show, and store functions in
order to display all authors,
4:50
one specific author, and
store newly created authors respectively.
4:55
In the next section, we're going to
finish building the remaining crud
5:01
functionality for our REST API by creating
the update and destroy functions.
5:05
Before we get started,
let's discuss why the update function
5:12
needs to accept both
put in a patch method.
5:16
Put is a method for
5:21
modifying resources where the client sends
data that updates the entire resource.
5:22
It's used to set
a resources information and
5:29
if a resource already exists,
creates a new resource.
5:31
For example, when you want to change
the first name of a person in a database,
5:35
you need to send the entire
resource when making a put request.
5:40
Patch applies to a partial
update to the resource,
5:45
which means you're only required to send
the data that you want to update and
5:48
it won't affect or change anything else.
5:53
For example, if you want to update the
first name of a resource in the database,
5:56
you'll only need to send the first name.
6:01
Let's get started by building the put and
patch routes for the update function.
6:04
And to conclude this
section on CRUD operations,
6:09
we'll finish with the destroy function.
6:12
See you there.
6:15
Now that the store function
is working as expected,
6:17
we have two more functions to go,
update and destroy.
6:20
Let's start by building the put and patch
routes for the update function like this.
6:25
Now let's verify our routes using
php artisan route lists like this.
6:57
Great, our routes are ready to go.
7:16
So let's navigate to the
AuthorController.php file so we can update
7:18
the validation and add the author resource
to the update function like this.
7:23
First, let's refactor the validation
once again to make this as explicit
7:30
as possible by copying
the add store validation.
7:35
Finally, we'll wrap our
author model with the new
7:47
author resource in the update
function like this.
7:52
Before we move on, let's change the 200OK,
8:23
HTTP status to 201 created which is
a better status code for this action.
8:27
Great, now let's head over to the REST
client and test our routes like this.
8:34
This is the comment for
our first PUT request.
8:41
And this is a PUT method for
the first author and
8:47
here is the information
that we're going to update.
8:51
Nice job,
you should see a 201 created status,
8:59
which means we're almost done
testing the update function.
9:03
So let's go ahead and verify that our
last record was updated successfully.
9:07
If everything is correct,
9:13
you should see an updated author
with the changes we made earlier.
9:15
We're almost done with our CRUD
operations for our authors so
9:19
let's build the destroy function
starting with the route like this.
9:23
Before we move on, let's verify our route
using PHP artisan route list like this.
9:38
Great, our route is verified and
we're ready to test the destroy function.
9:56
But let's make sure the destroy
function is in order.
10:01
Our first destroy function looks to be in
order, so let's test it out like this.
10:13
And we will delete the second author.
10:26
Great, we deleted our
author with an ID of 2,
10:33
and our request was returned
with a status of 204 No Content.
10:36
Fantastic work, we've successfully
tested all of the author resources and
10:43
routes using the REST client plugin
10:48
without having to leave
the Visual Studio Code IDE.
10:51
We also used resources to hide database
specific information like ID and
10:56
timestamps, while exposing fields,
such as name, title,
11:02
company, and email for
each one of our authors.
11:07
In the next section,
we're gonna do the same for
11:12
our authors books by
creating the book resource.
11:14
See you there.
11:18
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